“Let alone China, India cannot even win a war against Pakistan. And this has nothing to do with the possession of nuclear weapons…”, this is how Indian authors Pravin Sawhney and Ghazala Wahab start their recently published book Dragon On Our Doorstep: Managing China Through Military Power.

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Striking! A book – ostensibly coming as an advice for Indian policymakers that how New Delhi should manage a raising China, militarily and otherwise – starts with Pakistan.

The authors argue that while India has “focused on building military force”, which means amassing troops, weapons and other military hardware, what Pakistan has opted for is to build “military power” meaning “optimal utilization of [Pakistan’s] military force.”

The authors further stress that “… the road to managing an assertive China runs through Pakistan – both strategically and militarily.”

The duo concede that Indian efforts – especially those of the incumbent Modi regime over past three years – aimed at diplomatically isolating Pakistan have been rendered as futile, maintaining that “Pakistan today is being sought after by the United States, China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, the Central Asian Republics and the littoral countries of South Asia. It has emerged as a critical geopolitical pivot on the Eurasian chessboard.”

They further add: “India, on the other hand, remains an important but certainly not geostrategic player.”

“Whether we like it or not, the path to India becoming a leading power is through Pakistan,” assert the two experts.